


Please Don't Lose Your Faith In Me

by Branithar



Series: We're Like Light Through Stained Glass [2]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sad Luke, Soulmates, Therapy, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:53:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29939922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Branithar/pseuds/Branithar
Summary: Sometimes, when people are in danger they can't find a way out of, they can switch bodies with their soulmates for help. For most people, this only happens a handful of times over the course of their lives. Others aren't so lucky.
Relationships: Luke Hemmings/Ashton Irwin, Michael Clifford/Calum Hood, Michael Clifford/Luke Hemmings/Calum Hood/Ashton Irwin
Series: We're Like Light Through Stained Glass [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991515
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Expect heavy themes in this one. 
> 
> Title is from Madness by Sleeping With Sirens.

"Hey, it's that guy," Michael said, craning his neck to see past Luke.

"What guy?" Luke asked, looking back at all the people sitting and walking around them.

"With the curly hair."

He wasn't sure since there were a lot of fucking people, but Luke thought he saw who Michael meant, a stony-faced kid he shared a few classes with heading for the English block.

"Apparently he got kidnapped when he was a kid," Michael explained conversationally.

"Says who?"

Michael shrugged. "Hey, do you wanna come to the arcade with me and Calum after school."

"Can't. I've got therapy."

Wednesdays were for therapy, and had been for almost as long as Luke could remember. 

"Is there something else you wanna talk about?" Lisa asked when Luke seemed fidgety that afternoon.

They’d been talking about how Luke was doing in school, because it was important that he focus on his education and he’d requested that they discuss it as often as possible to make him feel more accountable and because he didn’t want to dwell on his childhood. It was weird how everything in his life seemed to loop back to it anyway, though.

"Calum and Michael?"

Lisa nodded. "They're soulmates, right?"

Luke frowned deeply.

"How is that?"

"It makes me sad," he mumbled, "They've had each other forever and they can always call each other and know they're okay. Calum never has to wonder if Michael's dead. I don’t think they’ve even switched since they were in primary school."

“You’re jealous of them?”

“Not because they have each other,” Luke clarified, “Just because they _know.”_

“Have you tried forcing switches again?” 

“No,” Luke assured her, “I mean, it never worked. That probably means there’s no one for me to switch with anymore.” 

“But you don’t know for sure.” 

Luke shook his head. “I mean… I’ve _never_ triggered a switch. What if he was just… better at it, you know?”

“Do you want him to switch with you?”

Luke chewed his lip. “No,” he decided, “I just wanna know that it’s over.”

The switches had stopped when Luke was twelve. Very few people could mark the day they and their soulmates stopped switching. Statistically speaking, most people only switched with their soulmates a handful of times over the course of their lives. Luke couldn’t count the number of times his soulmate switched with him. 

He’d started when Luke was seven. He’d been playing in the sandbox when the sunlight and toys around him had disappeared, replaced with a dark shed and two grown-ups wearing masks. 

By the time Luke found himself in his own body again, someone had taken it to the nurse’s office. Apparently he’d just started screaming and crying uncontrollably. Luke didn’t know. He hadn’t been there for that.

His parents had been horrified when the nurse told them what he’d said had happened. They’d found a childrens’ therapist for him that day and prayed that it would never happen again, but it did. It kept happening with varying frequency for five years.

"How was it?" Mum asked on the way home.

"Fine," which was always Luke's answer unless he was so visibly _not_ fine that he couldn't get away with lying about it. "Lisa wants me to socialise more."

"Calum and Michael are always welcome to come over," Mum offered, "Even tonight, if you want. It's mac and cheese for dinner."

A generous offer, given the amount of shit Michael had accidentally broken since they met in year eight. Luke never laughed as much as he did with them, though, so he guessed Mum was maternally obligated to forgive all, or something. Luke didn’t know how she put up with everything that came with _Luke._


	2. Chapter 2

Fortunately for Luke's reputation as an upstanding patient, an opportunity to expand his social horizons presented itself the next morning in Art. Luke shared that class with the boy Michael had pointed out yesterday, but they both sat alone. Luke because he was a known psycho, and the boy for the same reason, but in a different way. Funny how all those health classes about mental illness did nothing to actually destigmatise it.

Luke tentatively approached the boy. "Can I sit here?"

The boy shrugged.

Luke slowly set his art book down and took a seat. "I'm Luke."

"Ashton."

Ms Higgins started the class by reminding everyone that they'd be planning their sculptures today, showing them a few pictures from Pinterest to inspire them.

"I have no idea what I'm doing for mine," Luke confessed to Ashton.

"That sucks."

"What are you doing for yours?"

"Dunno."

"Maybe we could work together," Luke suggested.

"Okay."

"Really?"

Ashton shrugged.

Unfortunately, Ashton was more like Luke than Michael in that he didn't talk much, which made trying to converse difficult. It made Luke appreciate how much he tended to rely on other people to do it for him, just giving enough input to let them know he was listening.

"Like your nai- your nails," was the most promising thing Ashton said to him all class.

Luke looked at the red polish. "Thanks."

He'd started painting them in year ten, a habit Lisa had been thrilled to hear about.

“I think I’m gonna do a cat’s face,” he told him, drawing a circle with pointy ears and whiskers in his book.

“I’ll do its… its body,” Ashton suggested.

Luke grinned. It was morbid, but it was progress. “Cool.” 

At lunch, Luke wrote in his therapy journal that he'd made friends with Ashton.

"You should come to the arcade with us," Calum told Luke as he ate a sandwich.

"Just not on Wednesdays," Luke reminded him.

"What time is therapy again?" Michael asked.

Luke shrugged. "Sometimes I have, like... therapy homework after." If by _therapy homework_ one meant a fucking exhausting mental breakdown. "I never do stuff on Wednesdays just in case."

"That's bullshit. Isn't therapy supposed to make you feel better? Homework fucking sucks."

Luke laughed. "Yeah it does."

Ashton was also in Maths with Luke and Michael. They spotted him waiting outside the room with the rest of the class and Luke pulled Michael over to introduce them. 

“Did you really get kidnapped?” Michael wondered.

Luke gaped at him for a moment, then gave him a shove. _”Michael.”_

Ashton shrugged noncommittally. 

Mr Rodwell ushered the class inside and Luke took a seat next to Ashton. Nobody else ever sat there. Michael sat at the pair of desks next to them.

“Do you wanna sit with us at lunch?” Luke asked. 

Ashton glanced at him and Michael.

“He’s not gonna ask about it again,” Luke promised. 

Michael smiled at him. 

“‘Kay.”

Luke grinned. “Cool.”

Lisa would be so proud of him for reaching out to someone as quiet and lonely as Ashton.

**Author's Note:**

> I run tran5rightsos on Tumblr! Feel free to send asks about this or any of my other 5sos fics!


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